MODULE 2
Water: Global water resources, Indian water resources, Resources system planning. Water use
sectors- domestic, industrial, agriculture. Water deficit and water surplus basins in India,
equitable distribution, Inter-basin water transfers, Interlinking of rivers Himalayan component,
peninsular component, issues involved. Ground water, its potential in India, conjunctive use,
recharge of ground water. Contamination of ground water, sea water ingress, problems and
solutions.
Water
Water is an important resource available to the living organisms. It’s a cradle of life on Earth.
Life started on earth in water and is surviving due to the presence of water on the Earth.
There are two main sources of water: surface water and groundwater.
🞂 Surface Water is found in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.
🞂 Groundwater lies under the surface of the land, where it travels through and fills
openings in the rocks.
The rocks that store and transmit groundwater are called aquifers. Groundwater must be
pumped from an aquifer to the earth's surface for use
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Sources of Water
1. Rain Water
2. Surface Water
3. Ground Water
4. Water obtained from reclamation
1. Rain water
a. From the roofs of the houses and dwellings – collected and stored in underground tank or
cistern for individual supply
b. From Prepared catchments – given a suitable lining and slope, collected in small
reservoirs for community supply
2. Surface Water
a. From rivers by continuous draft – without any diversion works.
b. From river diversions- routed through canal into treatment plant.
c. From reservoir storage
d. From direct intake from natural lakes
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3. Ground Water
a. From natural springs
b. From wells and bore wells
c. From infiltration galleries
d. From river side radial collector wells
4. Water obtained from reclamation
a. Desalination
b. Re-use of treated waste water
Global Water Resources
Rivers in India
🞂 India is blessed with many rivers. Land slope determines the river to which the rain
falling on an area will eventually flow. A river basin, also called catchment area of the
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river, is the area from which the rain will flow into that particular river. The shape and
size of the river basin is determined by the topography. Following are the major river
basins groups in India.
🞂 Indus system
This comprises the river Indus and its tributaries like the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and
Sutlej. These originate in the North and generally flow in a West or South-West direction
to eventually flow into Arabian Sea through Pakistan.
🞂 Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghana system
The main river Ganga and its tributaries like the Yamuna, Sone, Gandak, Kosi and many
others; similarly main rivers Brahmaputra, Meghna and their tributaries. All these
eventually flow into Bay of Bengal, through Bangladesh. Some of the tributaries of these
rivers are larger than other independent rivers. e.g. Yamuna, a tributary of Ganga, has a
larger catchment area than the Tapi, a small peninsula river.
🞂 Rivers of Rajasthan and Gujrat
Mahi, Sabarmati, Luni etc. These are rivers of arid regions, they carry relatively little
flow, some of them flow to Arabian Sea through Gujrat while some are land-locked and
their flow is lost through percolation and evaporation in the vast arid regions.
🞂 East Flowing Peninsular Rivers
The important membes of this group are :Damodar, Mahanadi, Brhamanai, Baitrani,
Subarnarekha, Krishna-Godavari and Kaveri. The all flow in to Bay of Bengal at various
places along the Eastern coast of India.
🞂 West Flowing Peninsular Rivers
Narmada and Tapi. These originate in Central India and flow in a Western direction to
meet Arabian Sea south of Gujrat.
🞂 Western Coast Rivers
A large number of rivers in the Western Coast – i.e. coastal Maharashtra and Karnatka,
and entire Kerala. These rivers are small in length but carry a significant amount of water
due to very high rainfall in western ghats. They drain only 3 % of the India’s land area
but carry 11 % of India’s water resources
Uses of Water
Productive use: water is primarily used for irrigation of food crops, fodder crops, medicinal
herbs, etc. Consumptive use: water is consumed in exhaustive quantities for domestic purposes
such as drinking, cooking, washing etc. water find its application in almost all the processes in
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industries, starting from the manufacturing processes to housekeeping activities. Commercial
use: Water consumed for carrying out commercial and recreational activities.
Many uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental
activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water. The framework for allocating
water resources to water users (where such a framework exists) is known as water rights
🞂 Agricultural:
It is estimated that 69% of world-wide water use is for irrigation. In some areas of the world
irrigation is necessary to grow any crop at all, in other areas it permits more profitable crops to
be grown or enhances crop yield.
🞂 Industrial
It is estimated that 15% of world-wide water use is industrial. Major industrial users include
power plants, which use water for cooling or as a power source (i.e. hydroelectric plants), ore
and oil refineries, which use water in chemical processes, and manufacturing plants, which use
water as a solvent. The portion of industrial water usage that is consumptive varies widely, but as
a whole is lower than agricultural use
🞂 Household Drinking water
It is estimated that 15% of world-wide water use is for household purposes. These include
drinking water, bathing, cooking, sanitation, and gardening. Basic household water requirements
have been estimated at around 50 liters per person per day, excluding water for gardens.
🞂 Recreation
Recreational water use is usually a very small but growing percentage of total water use.
Recreational water use is mostly tied to reservoirs. If a reservoir is kept fuller than it would
otherwise be for recreation, then the water retained could be categorized as recreational usage.
Other examples are anglers, water skiers, nature enthusiasts and swimmers.
Water Deficit
India has 1/6th of the global population and 1/25th of world’s water resources, but the water
availability is highly uncertain both in time and space due to its peculiar monsoonal climate.
About 70 % of the population directly or indirectly depends on agriculture, in the back drop of
economic growth from industrialization. The urban population in the country is increasing at
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faster rate which requires the establishment of basic infrastructure, amenities and increase in
food production. It is essential to convert rain fed crops into irrigation crops
The irrigation commission in 1972 has identified 67 drought prone districts comprising 326
taluks located in 8 states having an area of 49.73 M Ha. The revised study made by Central
Water Commission (CWC) in 2006 reveals that 51.12 M Ha area is drought affected in 74
districts. Thus in comparison to total geographical area of the country about 1/6th is drought
prone area
As per international standards per capita water requirement is 1700 m3 per year. If the
availability is less than 1000 m3, it is considered as water scarcity. If it ranges between 1000-
1700 m3 it is treated as water stressed. India with present availability of about 1600 m3 is under
water stress condition
Inter Basin Water Transfer
The concept of the Inter basin water transfer is to be explored and implemented to ensure
uniform distribution of available natural water resource and to mitigate the consequences of
hydrologic extremes of floods and droughts.
The implementation of Inter basin water transfer is the need of the hour for the overall
development of a country like India in which population is growing at an alarming rate. Also the
Inter basin water transfer helps to prevent the formation of deltas along the coast line and
migration of people from drought affected region
In India the monsoons are highly orographic causing floods in North and North Eastern region
and drought in other areas. The solution for storage and transfer lies in much talked about
interlinking of rivers or inter basin water transfer. As the Govt. of India is spending huge amount
of money every year towards the relief of floods and drought, it is worthwhile to spend on inter
basin and intra basin water transfer schemes keeping long term benefits in view. Moreover the
inter basin water transfer is the only solution to maintain regional balance in all sectors like
Agricultural, Industrial, Power generation, Domestic, Navigation etc
Examples of Inter basin water transfer in India
🞂 Periyar - Vaigai project (Kerala state 1985)
🞂 Kurnool – - Cuddapah Canal ( Andhra Pradesh 1863-1870)
🞂 Parambikulam - Aliyar project (1962-82)
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🞂 Telugu – - Ganga project
🞂 Beas – - Sutlej Link (1983)
🞂 Indira Gandhi Nahar project ( Rajasthan canal, 1958)
🞂 Sarada - Sahayak Project (1960 )
🞂 Ramganga – - Ganga Link (1978)
🞂 Tungabhadra – - Pennar project
🞂 Mahi project
🞂 Tehri Multipurpose project
Inter linking of Rivers
NWDA (National Water Development Agency) was formed in 1980 to further investigate and
explore the possibilities of interlinking of rivers. The broad objectives of NWDA are
1. To promote systematic and scientific study of interlinking of rivers.
2. To carryout detailed study, survey, investigations of Peninsular and Himalayan rivers.
3. To identify possible water transfer projects/links to carry water from surplus basin to
deficit one after meeting the existing and proposed needs.
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4. To prepare feasibility reports of various components of Himalayan and Peninsular rivers.
After thorough investigations NWDA proposed to transfer water through 12,500 Km length of
canal. As per NWDA, Inter basin water transfer is proposed in two components namely
(1) Himalayan component and
(2) Peninsular component.
1. Himalayan Component
This component mainly proposes to link Brahmaputra and its tributaries with the river
Ganga and Ganga with Mahanadi. In addition it also proposes to transfer surplus flows of
the Eastern tributaries of Ganga to the West. This component envisages construction of
canal systems and storage reservoirs on the principal tributaries of Ganga and
Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan. This component would provide
additional irrigation to about 22 MHa and power generation of about 30000 MW besides
flood control in Brahmaputra and Ganga basins
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2. Peninsular Component
In this component a network of interconnected river basins of Peninsular India is
considered. NWDA carried out water balance studies of all the major river basins such as
Mahanadi , Godavari , Krishna ,Pennar , Cauvery , Vaigai, West flowing rivers of Kerala
, Karnataka , North of Bombay and South of Tapi and Southern tributaries of Yamuna to
find out water surplus and deficit basins. The 16 links of Peninsular component are given
below
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🞂 From Peninsular Component it is possible to irrigate about 13 M Ha and about 4000 M
Wof
Hydropower can be generated. The Peninsular component utilizes 69.6 TMCum of water.
This component involves the construction of storage reservoirs at potential sites in
addition to the existing /ongoing reservoirs and a network of canals for water transfer
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Merits of Inter Basin Water Transfer
1. Possible to utilize the water resources uniformly and economically to yield Significant
output.
2. Enhancement in Irrigation potential and power generation
3. Provides ample surface water to meet the growing needs of Domestic and Industries.
4. Scopes for Inland Navigation which reduces stress on existing communication system.
5. It minimizes the intensity of drought and floods.
6. It helps to increase per capita income
7. Reduces the exploitation of ground water as surface water is made available in abundant.
8. Huge employment generation
9. Development of fisheries
10. Salinity control
11. Recreation facility
12. . Infrastructural development
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13. Socio economic development
14. Considerable improvement in ground water potential
15. Control in migration
16. Conversion of barren land into cultivable land
17. Reduction in formation of further deltas in coastal zones.
18. Minimization of the relief expenditure towards floods and droughts
[Note: explain each point in your own words in a sentence or two]
Demerits of Inter Basin Water Transfer
1. Large area liable for submersion due to construction of reservoirs and canals
2. Adverse effects over ecological system
3. Difficult to solve Interstate or International water disputes
4. Legal problem in sharing the water
5. Cost of the project and recurring expenditure for maintenance are high
6. Water pollution in conveyance
7. Loss of water in conveyance through the canals
8. Land acquisition and rehabilitation problems
9. Requires afforestation to compensate for loss in green
10. It is a long term project which may cause large variation in estimation
11. Serving for high altitude areas needs pumping of water which requires huge power and
maintenance.
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12. Needs huge debate at micro level and macro level on the issue to convince the public.
13. Problems of soil erosion and sedimentation
14. In undulated zones it may required to construct large number of cross drainage works.
[Note: explain each point in your own words in a sentence or two]
Ground Water
Ground water is the water that seeps through rocks and soil and is stored below the ground. The
rocks in which ground water is stored are called aquifers. Aquifers are typically made up of
gravel, sand, sandstone or limestone. Water moves through these rocks because they have large
connected spaces that make them permeable. The area where water fills the aquifer is called the
saturated zone. The depth from the surface at which ground water is found is called the water
table. The water table can be as shallow as a foot below the ground or it can be a few hundred
meters deep. Heavy rains can cause the water table to rise and conversely, continuous extraction
of ground water can cause the level to fall
Ground Water Potential in India
1. Hard-rock aquifers of peninsular India:
🞂 These aquifers represent around 65% of India’s overall aquifer surface area.
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🞂 Most of them are found in central peninsular India, where land is typically underlain by
hard-rock formations.
🞂 These rocks give rise to a complex and extensive low-storage aquifer system, where ni
the water level tends to drop very rapidly once the water table falls by more than 2-6
meters.
🞂 These are located south of Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains and consist mostly of
consolidated sedimentary rocks, Deccan Trap basalts and crystalline rocks in the states of
Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Kerala.
Occurrence and movement of ground water in these formations are restricted to
weathered residuum and interconnected fractures at deeper levels and they have limited
ground water potential. The rocks are commonly weathered to a depth of 30m under the
tropical conditions in central and southern part of the peninsular region.
🞂 Ground water occurs mainly in the weathered and fractured zones of rocks, within depth of
less than 50m, occasionally down to 100m, and rarely below this depth. Locally deep
circulation of ground water is indicated, as instanced by striking solution cavities or
deeper water bearing fractures. Ground water development is largely through dug wells.
The valley fills in this region are often dependable sources of water supply. The yield of
wells tapping deeper fractured zones in hard rocks varies from 2-10 lps.
2. Alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic plains:
🞂 These aquifers, found in the Gangetic and Indus plains in Northern India have significant
storage spaces, and hence are a valuable source of fresh water supply.
🞂 However, due to excessive ground water extraction and low recharge rates, these aquifers
are at the risk of irreversible overexploitation.
🞂 This region encompasses an area of about 850,000 sq km covering states of Punjab,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and West Bengal, accounting for more than one
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fourth of country’s land area, comprises the vast plains of Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers
and are underlain by thick piles of sediments of Tertiary and Quaternary age.
🞂 This vast and thick alluvial fill, exceeding 1000 m at places, constitute the most potential
and productive ground water reservoir in the country. These are characterized by
regionally extensive and highly productive multi-aquifer systems. The ground water
development in this region is still sub-optimal, except in the states of Haryana and
Punjab. The deeper aquifers available in these areas offer good scope for further
exploitation of ground water with suitable Fig.2. Hydrogeology of India measures. In
Indo-Gangetic- Brahmaputra plain, the deeper wells have yield ranging from 25-50 lps.
3. Northern Mountainous Terrain and Hilly areas:
• The highly rugged mountainous terrain in the Himalayan region in the northern part
of the country extending from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh is characterized by
steep slopes and high runoff.
• This region is underlain mostly by rocks such as granites, slate, sandstone and lime
stone ranging in age from Paleozoic to Cenozoic. The yield potential ranges from 1 to
40 lps. Though this area offers very little scope for groundwater storage, it acts as the
major source of recharge for the vast Indo-Gangetic and Brahmaputra alluvial plains.
4. Coastal Area
• Coastal areas have a thick cover of alluvial deposits of Pleistocene to Recent age
and form potential multi-aquifer systems in the states of Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
• However, inherent quality problems and the risk of seawater ingress impose
severe constrains in the development of these aquifers.
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• In addition, the ground water overdevelopment in these areas entails the risk of
saline water ingress. Ground water prospects in these aquifers vary widely
depending on the local conditions and may range from 5-25 lps
Ground water availability
As of April 2015, the water resource potential or annual water availability of the country in terms
of natural runoff (flow) in rivers is about 1,869 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM)/year. However, the
usable water resources of the country have been estimated as 1,123 BCM/year. This is due to
constraints of topography and uneven distribution of the resource in various river basins, which
makes it difficult to extract the entire available 1,869 BCM/year.
Conjunctive use of Ground Water and Surface Water
Conjunctive water use refers to simultaneous use of surface water and groundwater to meet crop
demand. Each day, hundreds of thousands of farmers in canal, tank, and other surface irrigation
systems combine surface water with groundwater. They do so in an individual manner,
uncontrolled by any scheme or basin-level entity.
To optimize conjunctive use of water, the best way forward is to concentrate on capacity
building of irrigation system. To sustain groundwater use in tubewell-irrigated areas, enhancing
recharge from precipitation and surface water imports is necessary
Management of Ground Water
Management of ground water resources in the Indian context is an extremely complex
proposition as it deals with the interactions between the human society and the physical
environment. The highly uneven distribution of ground water availability and its utilization
indicates that no single management strategy can be adopted for the country as a whole. On the
other hand, each situation demands a solution which takes into account the geomorphic set-up,
climatic, hydrologic and hydrogeologic settings, ground water availability, water utilization
pattern for various sectors and the socio-economic set-up of the region.
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Ground Water Depletion
Indiscriminate ground water development has led to substantial ground water level declines both
in hard rocks and alluvial areas threatening sustainability of this resource. Long-term decline of
ground water levels is being observed in many areas, mostly in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. Apart form this, in most of the cities depending on
ground water for drinking water supplies, water level declines up to 30 m and more have been
observed. Traditional water harvesting methods, which were in vogue in arid and semi-arid areas
of the country have either been abandoned or have become defunct in most cases. There is an
urgent need to revive these methods.
Contamination of Ground Water
Ground water contamination is the presence of certain pollutants in ground water that are in
excess of the limits prescribed for drinking water. The commonly observed contaminants include
arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and iron, which are geogenic in nature. Other contaminants include
bacteria, phosphates and heavy metals which are a result of human activities including domestic
sewage, agricultural practices and industrial effluents. The sources of contamination include
pollution by landfills, septic tanks, leaky underground gas tanks, and from overuse of fertilizers
and pesticides. It has been pointed out that nearly 60% of all districts in the country have issues
related to either availability of ground water, or quality of ground water, or both.
Recharge of Ground Water
Flow below the land surface takes place due to the process of infiltration. The recharge of
aquifers takes place during the precipitation due to infiltration of water into the pores in the soil
strata. The soil will not get completely saturated with water unless water supply is maintained for
prolonged periods. If water is applied only intermittently, there may be no recharge during the
first infiltration or even between two subsequent infiltrations.
Artificial Recharge of Ground Water
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Natural replenishment of ground water reservoir is a slow process and is often unable to keep
pace with the excessive and continued exploitation of ground water resources in various parts of
the country. This has resulted in declining ground water levels and depletion of ground water
resources in such areas. Artificial recharge aims at augmenting the natural replenishment of
ground water storage by some method of construction, spreading of water, or by artificially
changing natural conditions. It is useful for reducing overdraft, conserving surface run-off, and
increasing available ground water supplies. Recharge may be incidental or deliberate, depending
on whether or not it is a by-product of normal water utilization. Artificial recharge can also be
defined as a process of induced replenishment of the ground water reservoir by human activities.
The process of supplementing may be either planned such as storing water in pits, tanks etc. for
feeding the aquifer or unplanned and incidental to human activities like applied irrigation,
leakages from pipes etc
Seawater Ingress in Coastal Aquifers
The unconsolidated deltaic and coastal sediments form thick and regionally extensive aquifers
having prolific yield potential that can sustain deep, moderate to high capacity tube wells.
Although considerable fresh ground water resources have been identified in regionally extensive
deltaic and coastal tracts, particularly along the east coast, inherent quality problems restrict their
development. The ground water in these aquifers exists in a fragile dynamic equilibrium with
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seawater. Indiscriminate exploitation of ground water from such aquifers can disturb this
equilibrium and result in the development of landward hydraulic gradient, ultimately leading to
seawater intrusion into the fresh water aquifers. Coastal aquifers in parts of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh are already suffering from the problem of salinity ingress.
Measures to prevent/control saline water intrusion into coastal aquifers include
i) Regulation of ground water development in coastal areas.
ii) Formation of a freshwater ridge parallel to the coast through artificial recharge.
iii) Formation of a pumping trough through a series of pumping wells aligned parallel to
the coast
iv) Reduce Water use
v) Reduce Pump depth
vi) Pump less water more frequently
vii) Well location to be at least 50m from the coast
viii) Avoid deep wells close to the coast
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